Concepts for PennMOO, January 1996

Not long ago, I described in general terms my own
sense of what 'structural' (that is to say, of course - CONCEPTUAL)
changes PennMOO might undergo, if we wish it to serve as an ideal
teaching space (rather than a reflection of the real). I'd like to say
that point again - briefly - as a kind of call for proposals from among
this group for ways in which the architecture can/ought to be changed to
suit what I see as the needs of new forms of undergraduate teaching
coming into being at Penn.

In order for virtual classroom/space interaction to be a part of the
discussions about "21st Century Undergraduate Education" - and, not to put
too fine a point on it, to be eligible for attention and even funding
dollars that will be paid to innovative projects that harmonize with the
goals of this large effort - we ought to adjust PennMOO so that it serves
explicitly as the ideal space, as a currently unrealizable kind of space
in the physical realm of Penn. PennMOO ought to strike those who enter it
as not fundamentally resembling "Penn as it is" - rather it should
present possibilities (various ones, to be sure) for "Penn as it should
be" or "Penn is it could be."

I would like this memo to serve as the beginning of a discussion that has
as its objective a plan for how PennMOO should look and feel in the near
future.

Who will start? What deadline should we set for ourselves?

My English 103, a course about the literature of community, will be
making an effort to use PennMOO as a means of experimenting with ideal
intellectual communities. So of course I'd like to have at least a
section of MOO created with this notion in mind.

Some other points:

1. We should look for ways to make PennMOO interesting to graduate
students and faculty, e.g. invite speakers who would not be otherwise
available in person, and/or to start topic-based seminars that include
graduate students from other schools.

2. We should work more energetically with faculty to move beyond the
'getting started' mode toward using PennMOO in more sophisticated ways.

3. We should explore partnerships with residences - particularly College
Houses - so that virtual communities are part of the PennMOO landscape
and so we are ready for the advent of full-scale residential "Colleges,"
the first of which are to be opened in 9/97.

4. We should work to create a MOO-based community, overlapping with BUT
DISTINCT from the course-based communities that inhabit the space at
present. To this end, I'm going to suggest that we rethink the issue of
students building their own spaces, and give 'unofficial' spaces a real
chance to develop. I'm going to experiment with this in my English 103.

5. Create more spaces that "do" things, such as the poetry slam equipment
and skating rink.

6. Generally, we should work to ELIMINATE THE SEPARATION OF ACADEMIC AND
SOCIAL - we should integrate these as wholly and assiduously
as we can.
This is, after all, the one thing PennMOO can do that most other
academic spaces literally cannot (with the exception of the very rare
course taught in the students' residences).